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Make It Stick: Eight Strategies to Make Your Business Development Training More Effective
On average, law firms are losing $74,100 in revenues per lawyer each year. Today, lawyers are billing nearly 160 fewer hours than they did a dozen years ago. This stark reality was revealed in the recent State of the Legal Market study by The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute. The slack in demand is being driven by a variety of factors, all of which have been well-documented. But one factor that is not being talked about is the state of the business development training and coaching that firms use to build their business development capabilities in the firm.
While there is a renewed focus on business development in general, there is not much of a focus on the training, learning and development required to assure the success of the training. A recent survey of 30 large law firms conducted by eLegal Training found a myriad of challenges and inefficiencies in the current state of business development training in law firms. We took those findings and our own experience reviewing and designing business development training programs to recommend a number of steps law firm leaders can take to improve the quality and effectiveness of their business development training and coaching programs.
Conduct a Training Needs Assessment Before Designing the Training Program
People are different, have different needs and learn in different ways. They have different styles of learning, preferences for learning, need to start at different levels and have different time constraints for learning. Before designing a training program, perform a needs assessment to identify the unique training requirements of each main practice area in the firm and the lawyers targeted for the learning. Identify and map out the practice area's unique business development methodology and processes and then design the training program to those specifications. Then, survey learners for how they want to learn, how they want to access the training and what mediums they prefer to be trained through as well as how best to reinforce the training throughout the workday. Deliver the training in the modalities that the various groups of learners prefer.
Focus on Skills, Not Just Knowledge
Telling is not training. Knowing what to do is not the same as being able to do it. Just ask anyone who has been told how to parallel park but hasn't actually tried to parallel park. They learn quickly that knowing what to do in theory doesn't mean you're able to do it in practice. It takes practice to learn to parallel park well. The same is true of business development.
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